Intrigued by the mysteries of the brain and the future of artificial intelligence? Discover how simple cells create complex thoughts, how the groundbreaking Thousand Brains Theory is revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain, and the ethical considerations of creating machines with human-like intelligence. How can we leverage our intelligence for a more enlightened future? Dive into the fascinating intersection of neuroscience and AI and explore the potential of merging brains with machines.

A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence

Imagine the cells in your brain reading this text. Individually, they can’t think or read, but together they create intelligence. This puzzle of how simple cells combine to form complex thoughts remains one of humanity’s grand challenges. Despite tremendous progress, the brain still eludes our complete understanding. 

Legendary scientist Francis Crick noted in 1979 that while we’ve gathered many facts about the brain, a framework to interpret these facts was missing. This mystery persists even after 40 years of significant discoveries. Jeff Hawkins, the author, was inspired by Crick’s essay to dedicate his life to solving this enigma, focusing on the neocortex, the brain’s center of intelligence.

Hawkins' breakthrough came in 2016 when he discovered that the neocortex uses reference frames—akin to map grids—to store knowledge. This insight forms the basis of the Thousand Brains Theory, explaining how the brain learns and processes the world. Just as a map guides you through a town, reference frames help the brain understand and interact with its environment.

The Thousand Brains Theory has profound implications for both neuroscience and artificial intelligence. It offers a new way to think about intelligence, suggesting that today’s AI lacks the sophistication of human brains. Future intelligent machines, modeled on our brain’s principles, could be conscious and benign, though their use by humans poses risks.

Furthermore, the theory sheds light on the human condition, showing how our beliefs can be false and how primitive emotions could threaten our survival. It presents a choice: should we be driven by our biological past or embrace our intelligence to secure a noble future?

Hawkins' journey began with reading Crick and Mountcastle’s writings, leading him to switch from electrical engineering to neuroscience. Despite setbacks, including rejections from MIT and Berkeley, he persisted. He founded Palm Computing, then pivoted back to neuroscience by establishing the Redwood Neuroscience Institute and later Numenta, dedicated to understanding the neocortex.

Meeting Vernon Mountcastle, who proposed that the neocortex operates on a universal principle, was a pivotal moment for Hawkins. Mountcastle suggested that all parts of the neocortex work the same way, differing only in their connections. This idea, though controversial, is crucial to understanding intelligence.

In essence, Mountcastle and the Thousand Brains Theory proposes that intelligence arises from a common cortical algorithm. This insight could revolutionize not only neuroscience but also the development of truly intelligent machines. The journey to understand the brain continues, driven by the belief that unlocking its secrets will profoundly impact humanity.

Can the Thousand Brains Theory Unlock the Secrets of Human Intelligence and Revolutionize AI?

Our brains are not just input-output machines; they're sophisticated prediction engines. This idea struck Hawkins during grad school at Berkeley. He realized that his brain could instantly detect even the slightest changes in his environment, like a pencil cup moving on his desk, without actively looking for them. This led him to conclude that his brain, specifically the neocortex, was constantly making predictions about what it was about to see, hear, and feel.

The neocortex is structured to learn from sensory inputs and create a model of the world. It predicts everything, from the texture of a coffee cup handle to the correct month on a calendar. If a prediction is off, we notice and update our model. This continuous learning process is why we can navigate and understand our complex world.

From childhood, our neocortex learns by observing changes in sensory inputs, often through movement. This process, called sensory-motor learning, is essential. For example, to understand a new house, you must move around and interact with it. Similarly, to learn how a computer mouse works, you explore it from different angles.

Neurons are the brain's building blocks, and their unique properties allow them to create spikes and form connections called synapses. These connections store everything we know. When neurons spike together, they strengthen their connection, forming memories and knowledge.

Two major discoveries shaped our understanding of the neocortex. First, it learns a predictive model of the world. Second, predictions occur inside neurons via dendrite spikes, which prime the neuron for action. This internal mechanism explains why we're often unaware of most predictions.

Moreover, the neocortex uses reference frames to predict sensory inputs during movement. These frames allow the brain to understand an object's structure and plan movements. For example, when touching a coffee cup, your brain predicts what your fingers will feel based on their location relative to the cup.

This understanding of the neocortex as a predictive model-making machine has profound implications. It not only helps us understand how our brains work but also opens the door to creating intelligent machines that mimic this process.

Unlocking the Predictive Brain: Discoveries from Berkeley

Imagine sitting in a cozy lounge, observing chairs, desks, and a courthouse. The light from these objects enters your eyes, but you perceive them as being in the world, not in your eyes. This simple observation led to the realization that our brain has neurons representing the location of every perceived object. This concept of reference frames, a grid-like map in the brain, was a breakthrough in understanding how we navigate and perceive the world.

In the 1970s, John O’Keefe discovered place cells in rats' brains, which fired when the rat was in a specific location. Later, in 2005, May-Britt and Edvard Moser found grid cells that fired in a grid pattern as the rat moved. These discoveries showed how animals, including humans, create maps of their environment, allowing them to navigate and remember locations.

Our brain's neocortex, the region responsible for higher-order functions, might use a similar mechanism. It likely has neurons equivalent to place and grid cells, creating reference frames for objects and concepts. This theory, supported by recent experiments, suggests that every cortical column in the neocortex can learn models of objects by creating reference frames.

These reference frames are not just limited to physical objects but extend to abstract concepts. For instance, understanding democracy or solving a mathematical problem involves creating a mental map, moving through it to retrieve and organize knowledge. This idea aligns with the method of loci, a memory technique where items are placed in imagined locations in a familiar place to aid recall.

Studies using fMRI have shown that grid cells exist in the neocortex and are used to map not only physical spaces but also abstract dimensions, like imagining birds with different neck and leg lengths. This suggests that thinking is a form of moving through these mental maps.

The brain's division into "what" and "where" pathways illustrates how reference frames are used differently. The "what" pathway identifies objects, while the "where" pathway locates them relative to the body. This dual system allows us to recognize and interact with objects efficiently.

Even complex abilities like language may be rooted in these reference frames. Language's nested and recursive structure mirrors the brain's ability to model objects and concepts. The brain's capacity to create and navigate these reference frames underlies our intelligence, from basic perception to advanced thinking.

In short, our brain's use of reference frames explains how we perceive, navigate, and think about the world. This framework, built on the discoveries of place and grid cells, provides a powerful model for understanding human cognition and intelligence.

How Did Discoveries by John O’Keefe and the Mosers Revolutionize Our Understanding of Brain Navigation?

Hawkins' company, Numenta, aimed to develop a broad understanding of the neocortex. Despite a plethora of detailed brain studies, a unified theory was missing. They began by focusing on a single cortical column, as understanding one column’s function was crucial before examining their connections.

Numenta discovered each column is a sensory-motor system capable of learning models of objects based on reference frames. This led them to the Thousand Brains Theory of Intelligence, which contrasts with the existing hierarchical view of the neocortex. The traditional view sees the neocortex as a step-by-step flowchart processing sensory information into complex objects, especially in vision. However, this static process ignores the dynamic, interactive nature of sensory perception.

For example, vision involves saccadic eye movements, and both touch and hearing require movement to identify objects. The hierarchical model fails to explain the brain’s ability to recognize objects dynamically and the complex connections within the neocortex.

The Thousand Brains Theory proposes that each cortical column can learn and recognize complete objects by integrating inputs over time, without needing a strict hierarchy. Knowledge is distributed among thousands of columns, each forming a part of the overall model of an object. For instance, different columns might learn distinct aspects of a cell phone, from its shape to its visual icons.

This distributed knowledge means each column is a complete sensory-motor system, and the brain’s robustness ensures functionality even after significant neuron loss. The theory also addresses the “binding problem” by suggesting columns vote to reach a consensus, creating a unified perception from varied sensory inputs. This voting mechanism provides stability in perception despite ever-changing sensory inputs.

Attention shifts allow the brain to build models of environments, calculating the relative positions of objects. This continuous learning process is crucial for both temporary and long-lasting models.

Mountcastle’s advice to Hawkins about hierarchy in the neocortex deeply influenced his understanding. The Thousand Brains Theory offers a new framework, suggesting that hierarchical connections in the neocortex assemble complex object models rather than simply detecting features. This theory not only explains how we recognize objects but also how varied sensory inputs combine into a coherent perception.

The Thousand Brains Theory is a work in progress, but it provides a promising framework for understanding intelligence.

Revolutionizing Intelligence: Numenta's Thousand Brains Theory

In his groundbreaking book, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions," historian Thomas Kuhn introduced the concept of scientific paradigms, which are broad theoretical frameworks that guide scientific progress. When a paradigm is overturned, a scientific revolution occurs. While neuroscience has established paradigms, such as brain evolution and grid cells, the study of the neocortex and intelligence remains in a pre-paradigm state. 

The Thousand Brains Theory introduces a groundbreaking paradigm in neuroscience. This theory, which is testable, aims to impact the future of artificial intelligence (AI). Although AI research has made significant strides using artificial neural networks, the Thousand Brains Theory of Intelligence suggests a different future for machine intelligence that mimics brain principles.

Hawkins's vision for handheld computers was dismissed in his early career at Intel. He now finds himself in a similar position, proposing a future for AI that deviates from current expectations. Despite the impressive achievements of deep learning, such as winning games like Jeopardy! and Go, these systems lack flexibility and true intelligence. The goal of AI research is to create artificial general intelligence (AGI) that can learn multiple tasks and solve new problems, a goal not achievable with current deep learning techniques.

There are two paths to AGI: one focused on outperforming humans in specific tasks and another on creating flexible systems. The latter, which requires understanding the brain, is essential for building truly intelligent machines. The Thousand Brains Theory addresses the knowledge representation problem by suggesting that brains learn models of the world using maplike reference frames. This approach differs from early AI attempts that failed to program everyday knowledge into computers.

For AI to achieve AGI, it must incorporate principles from the brain, such as learning continuously, learning via movement, having many models, and using reference frames to store knowledge. These attributes enable flexibility and general-purpose intelligence, making future intelligent machines more akin to humans in their learning capabilities.

Machine consciousness, tied to continuous memory formation and recall, will arise from systems that work on brain principles. While philosophers debate the nature of consciousness, understanding it through neuroscience suggests that intelligent machines will be conscious. However, unlike humans, machines won't have fears or emotions unless specifically designed to, alleviating moral concerns about turning them off.

The mystery of consciousness, much like the mystery of life, will eventually be understood through scientific discovery. As we unravel the brain's workings, consciousness will be explained, shifting from an unexplainable phenomenon to a comprehensible aspect of intelligence.

Could Thomas Kuhn's Paradigm Shift Theory Redefine the Future of Artificial Intelligence?

Today’s AI isn’t truly intelligent or flexible like the human brain, but we are on the brink of overcoming these challenges. By understanding brain mechanisms, we are making strides towards creating real machine intelligence, which will likely emerge in the next 20 to 30 years. This transformation will be more impactful than computers were in the 20th century, though its exact implications remain unknown.

The Thousand Brains Theory helps us understand the potential and limitations of machine intelligence. Intelligent machines won’t need to replicate all human brain functions. The neocortex, our organ of intelligence, learns models of the world but doesn’t create goals or emotions—those come from the older parts of the brain. Machines will need equivalent systems for basic behaviors, safety, and motivations, but not human-like emotions.

Intelligent machines will require sensors and the ability to move them, known as embodiment. This could take various forms, from robots to virtual entities. For example, a machine could be designed to understand and manipulate proteins within cells, vastly advancing medical science.

Safety and goals are crucial. Machines will need built-in behaviors for safety and specific mechanisms for goals and motivations, avoiding the pitfalls of human-like instincts. For instance, intelligent drones should have pre-programmed flight control and safety features, aligned with Asimov’s laws of robotics.

The neocortex equivalent in machines will be a general-purpose learning system, potentially operating much faster than human brains. However, acquiring knowledge still takes time due to physical interactions with the world. Intelligent machines could also be scaled up with more cortical columns, leading to greater capacity for learning and understanding.

One key difference between human and machine intelligence is the ability to clone learned knowledge instantly. This means once a machine learns a task, it can be replicated across multiple machines, speeding up deployment and adaptation.

The future applications of machine intelligence are vast and largely unknown. They will likely transform many aspects of life, including scientific discovery. Intelligent machines could think faster, sense things we can’t, and travel to places we can’t, unlocking new knowledge and capabilities. While there are concerns about the risks of machine intelligence, the potential benefits are immense.

Unlocking the Future: AI's Leap Towards Human-like Intelligence

We're living in a pivotal time on Earth, marked by rapid climate change and a surge in technological advances. Human intelligence, which has doubled our life expectancy and eradicated many diseases, is at the heart of these transformations. But with our success comes significant challenges. 

Cities may become uninhabitable and agricultural lands barren within a century. Our growing population, now nearing eight billion, is polluting the planet, spurring climate change, and risking mass displacement.

Our intelligence also poses existential risks, particularly through technologies like nuclear weapons and gene editing. These threats are compounded by our innate tendencies, rooted in an 'old brain' evolved for survival and procreation, which often leads to short-sighted, selfish behaviors. This primitive brain, when paired with powerful modern technologies, could spell disaster for humanity.

False beliefs exacerbate these risks. Our brain constructs a model of the world based on limited sensory inputs, leading to perceptions that can be inaccurate. For instance, the brain-in-a-vat hypothesis suggests our experiences are just simulations. This means our understanding of reality is inherently flawed, making us susceptible to false beliefs about crucial issues like climate change and vaccines.

Viral false beliefs, such as the denial of climate change or belief in an afterlife that prioritizes the next life over this one, can spread rapidly and dangerously. These beliefs can lead to inaction or harmful actions that threaten our survival.

Despite these challenges, there's hope. For instance, empowering women to control their fertility can help manage population growth. Using our neocortex, we can develop strategies to mitigate the old brain's influence and address false beliefs. By fostering critical thinking and scientific inquiry, we can better navigate the existential threats we face and strive for a sustainable future.

Can Critical Thinking and Science Save Us From Our Primitive Brain and False Beliefs?

Imagine a future where we could either upload our brains into computers or merge them with machines. These concepts, long staples of science fiction, are now being seriously explored by scientists and technologists. 

Brain uploading involves recording every detail of your brain and simulating it on a computer, allowing you to live forever in a digital form. Merging your brain with a computer, on the other hand, connects your neurons to silicon chips, granting you superhuman powers like instant access to the internet just by thinking.

While these ideas sound appealing, they come with immense technical challenges and ethical dilemmas. For instance, uploading your brain would require mapping every neuron and synapse, a feat far beyond our current technological capabilities. Even if achieved, the resulting computer-based brain might not feel like an extension of you but rather a separate entity with its own experiences.

Merging brains with computers also presents hurdles, such as safely implanting millions of electrodes and ensuring they integrate seamlessly with biological tissue. Though this technology holds promise for helping people with injuries, its application for healthy individuals remains speculative.

Despite the allure of eternal life or superintelligence, these proposals may not address the existential risks humanity faces. Instead, we might consider leaving a legacy that preserves our knowledge and existence for future intelligent beings, whether they evolve on Earth or come from other parts of the galaxy.

By creating long-lasting signals or archives that can be discovered by future species, we ensure that our achievements and experiences are not lost to time. This approach can also inspire us to think long-term, balancing immediate needs with investments in humanity's future.

Future of Brain-Machine Fusion

In our brains, the old brain, responsible for bodily functions and basic behaviors, often leads to aggression and selfishness, while the new brain, the neocortex, is the seat of intelligence and learning. Throughout history, humans knew little about the world, creating myths to fill the gaps. But with the rise of science, we've begun to understand the universe and our place within it. Despite this progress, the old brain's primal instincts still pose a threat to our survival.

As our technologies advance, the destructive tendencies of the old brain could lead to societal collapse or even extinction. False beliefs, stemming from ignorance, further exacerbate these risks. We are trapped in bodies governed by primitive instincts, even as our intelligence imagines and strives for a better future. Many leaders and movements are driven by these primal behaviors, leading to conflict and division.

To ensure our survival and the preservation of knowledge, we must consider three radical methods: becoming a multi-planet species, modifying our genes, and creating intelligent machines. Establishing colonies on Mars could protect us from Earth-bound catastrophes, but Mars presents immense challenges, from its hostile environment to psychological and financial costs. Intelligent robots could help build and sustain Mars colonies, yet humans with their old-brain issues would still pose risks.

Interstellar travel, though currently beyond our reach, might one day be possible. The inherent drive to explore and expand our genes may propel us to distant stars. However, a deeper question arises: should our future be driven by genes or by the pursuit of knowledge?

We now have the technology to edit genes, potentially eliminating diseases and enhancing human traits. Gene editing could enable humans to live on Mars or even travel to other stars. It also offers the possibility of reducing aggression and promoting altruism. These choices, while ethically complex, could be crucial for our long-term survival.

Finally, creating intelligent machines that preserve and spread knowledge could ensure the continuation of intelligence beyond our biological limitations. These machines could explore the galaxy, learn new things, and share knowledge far and wide.

Our intelligence and knowledge are unique in the universe, making them worthy of preservation. By understanding and embracing our intelligence, we can make informed choices to ensure a brighter future for humanity and knowledge itself.

Can Gene Editing and Intelligent Machines Save Humanity from Its Primal Instincts?

The brain, composed of simple cells, collectively creates complex thoughts, a puzzle that remains unsolved despite significant scientific progress. Francis Crick highlighted the need for a framework to interpret brain facts, inspiring a focus on the neocortex, the brain's hub of intelligence.

In 2016, the discovery that the neocortex uses reference frames to store knowledge led to the Thousand Brains Theory, revolutionizing our understanding of how the brain processes information. This theory suggests that each cortical column in the brain can independently learn and recognize objects, contributing to overall perception through a voting mechanism.

The Thousand Brains Theory has implications for neuroscience and artificial intelligence, offering a model for creating machines with human-like intelligence. Future AI could be conscious and benign, though ethical considerations remain. The theory also highlights the danger of false beliefs and primitive emotions, urging us to leverage our intelligence for a noble future.

Drawing inspiration from Crick and Mountcastle, the journey into neuroscience revealed that intelligence arises from a common cortical algorithm. This insight could transform AI development, enabling machines to mimic brain principles, learn flexibly, and potentially become conscious.

The future of machine intelligence involves creating systems based on brain mechanisms, such as reference frames and continuous learning. These machines will revolutionize various fields, though safety and ethical frameworks are crucial. While the idea of merging brains with machines or uploading consciousness is explored, the technical and ethical challenges are significant.

In facing global challenges like climate change and existential risks, empowering intelligence and critical thinking is essential. Preserving knowledge through multi-planetary existence, gene editing, or intelligent machines ensures our legacy and survival. Balancing immediate needs with long-term investments in intelligent solutions can guide us toward a sustainable and enlightened future.

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A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence

Jeff Hawkins

10 Key ideas

29 MINS

4.7 (638)

Intrigued by the mysteries of the brain and the future of artificial intelligence?

Dive into the fascinating intersection of neuroscience and AI and explore the potential of merging brains with machines.

Key Ideas

#1